Work–Family Conflict Among Employees and the Self-Employed Across Europe

• Published in: Social indicators research Vol. 126; no. 2; pp. 571 - 593
• Main Authors: Annink, Anne, den Dulk, Laura, Steijn, Bram
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Science + Business Media 01.03.2016; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Cultural differences; Employees; Employment; Entrepreneurship; Europe; Families & family life; Family conflict; Family Life; Family work relationship; Guidelines; Human Geography; Hypotheses; Maternity & paternity leaves; Microeconomics; National security; Polls & surveys; Public Health; Quality of Life Research; Roles; Self employment; Social policy; Social Sciences; Sociology; State Aid; Stress; Work environment; Work groups; Work life balance; Workers; Working conditions; Working hours; Europe; State support; Work–family conflict; Self-employed; Employment relationship; Europe
• ISSN: 0303-8300; 1573-0921
• DOI: 10.1007/s11205-015-0899-4

This article examines the level of work–family conflict of self-employed persons, a changing but neglected group in work–life research, compared to employees in Europe. Differences between the two groups are explained by looking at job demands and resources. The inclusion of work–family state support makes it possible to examine differences between countries. Multilevel analysis has been applied to data from the European Social Survey (ESS 2010). The results show that job demands and resources operate differently for employees and the self-employed. The relationship between employment type and WFC is mediated mainly by job demands such as working hours, working at short notice, job insecurity and supervisory work. The results also reveal variation across countries that cannot be explained by state support, signalling the need for a more complete understanding of WFC from a cross-national perspective.